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How strong is strong enough? This is a question I've asked myself since starting my fitness routine 7 months ago. I want to get stronger at each workout, but how do you know when you're done... you've made it?

Judging by what I've seen, I decided that I needed to at least be able to pull my own weight. What does that mean? Respectable sets of real push ups, pull ups, squats, sprints....

Just two years ago, I couldn't do a single real push up. And many of my friends that have worked out at gyms and with personal trainers for years still can't do a single push up. To me, that's insane. If you're going to workout, then really workout and make some progress!

Well I've been able to do pushups for sometime now and can bust out a seemingly endless number of reps/sets and have graduated to weighted pushups. Yay!

But I've been behind on pull ups. To be fair, most women cannot perform a single pull up. Even my bodybuilding friends have trouble with it. I have a friend (same size as me) that squats over 450 lbs and can clean over 180 lbs, but she can't do a single pull up.

I have another friend, an all around athlete that body builds (and has been for years) and she can perform 1-2 pull ups.

Well......I'm happy to report that you can now include me among the ranks of women that can actually perform pull ups. Or at least one pull up.

While at the park with my kids, I jumped up on the monkey bars and did a real (no kicking!!!) pull up. I tried for a second rep and made it 3/4 of the way up. So I rested for a few seconds and went again. I did this 8 times.

So, I effectively did 8 sets of 1 rep. I tried twice more but my muscles were shot. I know 1 rep isn't fantastic, but it's huge progress. I was thrilled and could have ran for miles off the excitement. The goal - to be able to do a set of 8 reps....then to be able to add weight (most likely a backpack full of weight) and complete a full set.

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comments:

Awesome! I never knew most women cannot do one but I am with you! I can do a few actually. I think it is from years of constantly carrying kids around. Somehow I am strong. My sister is a Marine and my arms are almost as strong as hers! Crazy huh?

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